Cruz, Coburn Join Roberts’ Re-election Repair Tour

Ted Cruz will be campaigning with Sen. Pat Roberts in Kansas as the Republican fights off an unexpected challenge from millionaire businessman Greg Orman, an independent who says he will work with whomever is the U.S. Senate majority leader next year.

Sens. Cruz (R-Texas) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) have endorsed Roberts and will be in Kansas Oct. 9-10 campaigning for their fellow GOP.

“To stop the liberal Harry Reid-Barack Obama agenda, we must win the Senate Majority – and we can’t do that without Pat Roberts back in the Senate,” Cruz said in a statement released by the Roberts campaign.

“Pat will stand strong for Kansans, and I look forward to joining him on the campaign trail this week to launch his statewide bus tour,” Cruz added.

No one saw Orman coming. However, months ago during the GOP primary, Roberts ran into trouble when he had to admit sleeping on a friend’s recliner when he campaigned because he didn’t own a home in Kansas.

Still, Roberts was able to defeat three challengers in the Republican primary and seemed assured of a general election victory.

When Democrat Chad Taylor withdrew, that left only Orman, an independent, to challenge Roberts in November.

It seemed a safe bet even in early September that Roberts would easily win a fourth term in office, but now Roberts needs whatever help he can get if a recent NBC News/Marist poll is to be believed.

It shows Orman — who bills himself as having allegiance to no political party, even though he campaigned as a Democrat before withdrawing from the 2008 U.S. Senate primary — with a 10 point lead over Roberts.

However, a CBS News/New York Times/YouGov poll that was released the same day, Oct. 1, has the Kansas Senate race as a tie.

The Real Clear Politics average of all recent polls in the race gave Orman a lead of 5.2 points Oct. 7 and judged the race to be a toss-up.

No matter how close the race is, or is not, Roberts is not about to go down without a fight.

The Roberts campaign is doing its best to define Orman as a liberal Democrat, not the independent the millionaire — the Orman campaign puts his net worth at $20 million-$86 million — claims to be.

Roberts linked Orman to President Obama in the “Mistake” ad, which began running statewide in Kansas on Oct. 3.

The ad stars Obama telling an audience that although they won’t see his name on the ballot, they will be voting on his administration’s policies in November.

“Every single one of them,” Obama says.

So, the ad’s narrator concludes, “A vote for Greg Orman in November is a vote for the Obama agenda.”

Corry Bliss, the Roberts for Senate campaign manager, has accused Orman of being the handpicked candidate of Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“There should be no mistake that if he’s elected, Orman will be a rubber stamp for their liberal agenda,” Bliss said.

“Orman supports ObamaCare, he supports amnesty and in his own words and campaign donations, he supports President Obama and Harry Reid. There should be no mistake that Greg Orman is a liberal Democrat and a vote for him is a vote for President Obama,” Bliss added.